Maybe Tomorrow
by Kali Cephirot
Summary: GUNDAM 00 - Lockon really should know better than to believe in 'tomorrow'. Still, what can he do. He's kind of an optimist....... LockonxAllelujah, LockonxSetsuna. ONE SHOT, FINISHED.


**Maybe Tomorrow.**

1.

Setsuna is, actually, the first one that Lockon gets to meet, so they can go to the Ptolemaios for the first time. They're the only ones down on Earth: the other two, they're informed, are already there.

The first thing Lockon thinks about him is fuck, he's so young. His new name is still new enough that sometimes he still misses being called Neil, misses his brother's voice so much that it's like a kick to the gut. The part of him that remains able to get surprised by violence, wonders that a kid that is, probably, not a day older than fourteen, is here, ready to take on and become a murderer, that he can let go of his name like that.

Codename 'Setsuna F. Seiei' sits in front of him completely quiet, and it's something in his eyes that make Lockon hurt and remember that yes, they'll be murderers, but it'll be so no more children have to grow up into that, so that no more children will become orphans because of war. Perhaps because the boy's around the age his sister would be. Perhaps because his eyes look so empty, as if he was already dead.

"Hey," he calls and grins to the boy when he glances at him, distrust in his eyes, and Lockon can't blame him even a little bit, remembering the way he hated grown ups after his family died. "You ever seen it? The Earth?"

And he points towards the screen, where the Earth almost seems to shine, blue and white and almost perfect from up here.

"No," it's all the boy answers, before he looks away again.

Lockon resigns himself to the fact that it'll be a quiet trip, and for a moment he wonders about asking the boy why he's doing this before deciding that's really too much way too fast. Besides, Lockon knows that he wouldn't answer to that, not to a stranger.

So instead, every once in a while, he makes harmless questions: 'You hungry? Want something to drink?' 'How old are you?' and Setsuna answers to some of them, one syllable words and he doesn't turn to look at him directly, but all in all Lockon thinks it's not a bad thing, the kid being cautious.

It's when he sees the way Setsuna's eyes light up like a Christmas tree when he sees the Gundams for the first time that Lockon doesn't really know what to say.

2.

It's no surprise whatsoever that he and Allelujah become fast friends. One could get more talk of a wall than from Setsuna, who doesn't seem to care about anything nor anyone (not even himself) if it doesn't involve the Gundams and everything it might involve about it, and roughly the same can be said about Tieria, who half of the time is sneering at them, looking at them from behind his glasses and the rest of the time is ignoring them, focusing on Veda.

"I'm sure he has his reasons," Allelujah forgives Tieria like that with a small smile, shrugging as he says so. "We all do, right?"

Allelujah, Lockon thinks privately, knowing much better than to voice his doubts, is probably the worst choice for a Meister that ever could have been done.

For all that Setsuna is the youngest one of the four of them, he's already a soldier, trained to kill and take advantage of his slight form to make his enemy get confident, docking and moving in a way that speaks of knowing how to use a knife, of how to get up close and kill. He obeys Sumeragi's orders, his mind set on strategies and military action with such easiness that it almost makes him dizzy. And cold, efficient Tieria with his disdain for humanity is all to perfect for the part of bringing change to the world and erradicating war, with the way he can gather information and the way he practices, mind set on the price.

But Allelujah is really too kind, suffering far too much when they watch the News. A bombing attack, a new war starting, an assassination. Allelujah suffers through those in such a way that makes Lockon wonder how the fuck he hasn't driven himself insane, too kind and too damn soft for this.

Still, he knows better than to say anything at all about that. Even Allelujah must have his reasons, and Lockon can just hope that going through the goals won't completely break down his friend.

3.

Having sex with Allelujah is also something that Lockon does his best not to question. He guesses it was part loneliness, part stress after their missions actually started and the something that had broken inside Allelujah's eyes that made the other Meister look for him, and perhaps a thousand other things that Lockon had no idea whatsoever about him. There was too much he didn't know about Allelujah, of course, too much that Allelujah wouldn't know about him.

But still, neither of them was dumb enough to question the 'why's, or to think too much of the 'why not's. That's a dangerous line of thinking, when you're not sure if you'll be alive the next day. The risk is too big, Lockon thinks, to actually call it something more than friendship. Besides, it's not as if either of them has friends to spare.

After his breathing has calmed down and his orgasm has left his body and muscles pleasantly relaxed, Lockon reaches to brush a kiss against Allelujah's shoulder , smiling against his skin there because he knows it'll make Allelujah smile too before he slides off him, careful with the condom, tying it up and throwing it to the waste-bin before he stands up, reaching for his boxers, walking outside the room barefoot to the kitchen.

When he gets back to the room, he brings two bottles of water and he tosses one to Allelujah barely without seeing him, busy with his cellphone.

"Something wrong?" Allelujah asks, sitting down instead of stealing half of his bed as he usually does, ready to get unto the Gundam Meister's mentality in a flash.

"Nah, don't worry," he grins easily, looking towards Allelujah for a moment to see him relax against the bed again. "Just texting Setsuna."

"What for."

"Remind him that he's needs to buy milk."

"You buy him his groceries?" Allelujah asks him, a small, amused smile on his face as he accepts the water.

"Nah. I just text him to remind him not to be a dimwit and to buy at least some fruit every now and then. He'd eat take out every day if it was for hi- whaat?" Lockon raises an eyebrow as Allelujah starts chuckling, shoulders trembling, amused.

"You have it bad, don't you?" Allelujah asks, looking all too merry at him.

Lockon opens his mouth to deny it immediately. There's a number of things he could say and they all are, more or less, the truth. Besides, he's fairly certain that it doesn't really matter how fucked your personal life is, you don't tell the guy you screw and who you let screw you that you kinda fancy someone else.

Or, at least, you don't say it after you've just had sex. But still, if he's to go back to the trust thing he was talking about, he guesses he should give the first step.

"... I wouldn't say 'bad'. Mostly because since it's Setsuna and I'm not, you know, a Gundam... so really, I think 'pathetic' fits more."

Allelujah still seems too amused for his own good, so Lockon reaches for a pillow and throws it at his face before groaning, letting himself fall against Allelujah's chest.

"Y'know, if you're just going to laugh at me, I think I'd rather you be angry."

At that, at least, Allelujah does seem honestly perplexed, cocking his head to the side. Lockon would do something about it, except for the part where Allelujah has moved his hand to his head and he's twirling his fingers around his hair.

"Why would I be angry?" and before Lockon can point out the bed thing, he continues. "We never said anything about being exclusive. If you want Setsuna instead--"

"Oi," Lockon interrupts, twisting a bit at Allelujah's collarbone, more to hear the way his breath catches than anything else. "Who said anything about this 'instead' thing? What if I want to drag him to this."

Allelujah is startled for a moment, and then he starts trembling again, and Lockon decides to favor that instead of the fact that Allelujah is, kinda, laughing at him, because it seems as if he's about to start giggling, and in anyone else, Lockon would find it ridiculous. But there's still that sweetness in Allelujah that makes it alright for him to do so, if he wants.

"Sure, I can see how that'll go, telling Setsuna that you want to have a threesome with both of us," Allelujah teases him gently. "Next thing you'll say you think we should bring Tieria, too."

Lockon grins and nuzzles against Allelujah's neck and then biting at his throat, pushing him down against the sheets.

"Hey, who knows," he muses, letting go after he makes sure that there'll be a hickey, even if it'll be covered by Allelujah's shirt. "He might relax a bit, after a blowjob of two. Might do wonders for our teamwork!"

He cuts on Allelujah's laugh by kissing him, grounding against him and feeling his laughter change into a moan.

4.

All of Lockon's sniper reflexes yell at him when he is concious enough to hear someone else breathing in his room, reaching immediately for the gun that he keeps under the pillow and--

Oh, yeah. He opens his eyes and stretches, wincing at the way his back pops. He's still feeling like death warmed over but four hours of sleep are better than none, especially after the last thirty six hours they lived.

They didn't even get a chance of sleeping, when they reached the island. Sumeragi had contacted them, saying that the Gundams that had saved them had sent a message for them to meet in exactly thirty six hours. They had had to arrange emergency transportation for the four of them, get tickets to get them and at least two of the Gundam – Exia and Virtue– up to the space, which meant breaking up in two groups.

The moment the launching had started, though, he had collapsed: adrenaline and stress melting away and leaving Lockon almost comatose. Sitting down, he glances towards the other seat and immediately frowns. Setsuna, he discovers after a few moments of studying him, isn't really asleep.

"Oi," he calls in a soft voice, wincing when his voice creaks. He clears his throat and then reaches across the other side, poking Setsuna with his boot. Setsuna opens his eyes too quickly, the lines under his eyes too wrong for a sixteen years old. Lockon sighs. "Should've get some sleep yourself."

Setsuna doesn't answer and he looks away, which makes Lockon remember when they first met. But something seems to relax over Setsuna, now that he's awake, which makes him wonder. Was Setsuna keeping guard?

Lockon yawns. He's still hours short on sleep to try and make himself understand the way Setsuna's brain works, so he pushes himself off the seat and unto the embrace of no-gravity to roll his shoulders, shaking his head.

"You should try getting a nap, though. We still have some hours to go before we're there," he tells Setsuna, going to the door. "I'm going for some coffee and something to eat. Want something?"

He's not really expecting an answer, though, Setsuna being Setsuna.

"Something to eat would be good," he hears Setsuna say, voice the same monotone it usually is.

Lockon doesn't turn to look at him, lest the surprise in his face actually show, but he raises a hand as he floats away, feeling himself smile, and perhaps he's a little bit more awake than he was a few moments before.

"I'll even bring you something to drink. Some warm milk: always put me to sleep faster than you can count to ten."

It ends up that he didn't have to worry about that; by the time he comes back with coffee and hot chocolate and some sandwiches, Setsuna is deeply asleep. He's still sitting down, but his head is leaning against the wall, half turned, his lips opened a little bit and there's something – if you ignore the exhaustion – over the way he sleeps and breaths in an out rythmically that does make him look his age, for once.

"Your neck's gonna kill you when you wake up," Lockon murmurs to the sleeping boy, shaking his head in perhaps too fond amusement, trying his best not to think too much about the fact that Setsuna actually trusted him with this.

He sets the food and drinks down, reaching over the blanket he had used before using it to cover Setsuna, barely daring as it is to make sure it gets tucked to the small magnetic fields so that it doesn't just float away.

5.

It takes him far too long to notice the way things change between the four of them. It's not even Lockon who notices it, and rather is Felt who murmurs it, her eyes curious and wide and Lockon has no idea what to tell her about it.

The change, he supposes, it's mostly on Tieria and Setsuna. It's not that they're different than before... except the parts where they are different. Before, the Ptolemaio's crew would've considered it a good week if they hadn't had Setsuna and Tieria locking guns and now they're not only working together, but they _talk_ – okay, so far it's mostly about missions and plans and the gundams, but Lockon knows much better than to hope for miracles. Tieria still sneers, but his expression is not as haughty, perhaps, as if he's actually considering them something else than just cannon fodder for the first time since they met. Setsuna is still quiet and serious and lethal, but since Setsuna told him that he'd trust him with changing the world is as if something has been half lifted from his shoulders, as if Setsuna now, for the first time since who knows how long, actually trusts someone else.

The fact that it's him makes Lockon not really know how to feel, because on one hand it's what he has been hoping for for two years. On the other hand, he's still a little uncertain about where to reconcile what he thought about Setsuna before, and the hate he has had for the people that killed his family since he was a kid.

It's during times like this that missing his brother is almost a physical pain, and even Allelujah's patience can only do so much, because it's then that Lockon realizes that, for all that he did his best not to let it happen, this people has become as much family to him as his parents and siblings ever where, and that part of what had hurt, when he had learned about Setsuna, had been that almost-but-not betrayal there.

And he really should know better than to believe in tomorrows, but when he sees Setsuna looking at the Earth again, he sighs and gets close. Just a few months ago, doing that would've made Setsuna tense, ready to use his gun if he thought it was needed. Now, however, he just looks over his shoulder and then goes back to his silent contemplation.

Lockon shakes his head. "Your hair's getting long again. When was the last time you cut it?"

"Last time you did it."

"Man, I should start charging you," Lockon says, a smile breaking free without him almost noticing. He reaches to Setsuna's hair, toussling it, snickering when that only gets Setsuna blinking at him instead of glaring.

"C'mon, dinner's ready. I'll cut it tomorrow."

Setsuna looks at him for a few moments before he nods, looking towards the Earth before he walks by his side.

So, who knows. Lockon decides he'll think about this stuff later.

Tomorrow.


End file.
